Isotope-selective ionization utilizing molecular alignment of N isotopologues with a train of femtosecond laser pulses

Akagi, Hiroshi; Kasajima, Tatsuya*; Kumada, Takayuki   ; Itakura, Ryuji; Yokoyama, Atsushi; Hasegawa, Hirokazu*; Oshima, Yasuhiro*

We propose a strategy of isotope-selective ionization for a binary mixture of isotopologues of homonuclear diatomic molecules, utilizing field-free alignment with a train of femtosecond laser pulses. Field-free alignment can be achieved simultaneously for two isotopologues consisting of two atoms with the same atomic mass number or , utilizing a pulse train with their time interval of T = T() = T(), where T() and T() are the rotational revival times of the isotopologues. We demonstrate experimentally that a train of four alignment pulses with their interval of T ( = 14, = 15) creates transiently aligned N and anti-aligned N just before T/2 after the last pulse, and vice versa just after T/2. Highly isotope-selective N ionization is achieved at these timings with another femtosecond laser pulse, which induces the non-resonant multiphoton ionization with the cross section remarkably depending on the angle between the molecular axis and the laser electric field direction. The ion yield ratio I(N)/I(N) ranges from 0.49 to 2.00, which is wider than the range obtained with single alignment pulse.